Apologetics , history

The original idea behind this book was to demonstrate that the stories of Jesus Christ in the Bible (and in fact the whole Bible) were unreliable and that Christ's resurrection never happened. However the agnostic author, Frank Morison, discovered that it was not possible to actually write that book because he discovered, after a lot of pain staking research, that his original premise simply wasn't true. So, into the draw went his original concept and instead he wrote the book that has since become a world wide best seller.
Who Moved The Stone is not a theological text, and does not pretend to answer the question of who Jesus is and what his death and resurrection represent. It seems that these questions have been left for the reader to consider themselves. Instead, Morison digs through the material that we have to paint a very clear picture on what happened on that weekend over two thousand years ago, and his research and methodology is very impressive. Unfortunately, having a biased view towards these events I cannot honestly say that I have been convinced, but rather I can say that his argument and his exploration of the evidence that we have is excellent.
Many people have gone out to write a book that Morison has attempted to write and some of these books have also been published, however the difference is that Morison went into his project with an open mind. Many of the other writers (who will not be named) have not done this. They already have a direction they wish to head, and will simply make point of fact statements (such as the gospels being unreliable) without actually digging much deeper to provide supporting evidence as to why they believe that the gospels are unreliable.
Even though Morison focuses mostly on the gospels as the source, he applies logic and background information to clearly paint the picture that has been painted in this book. Further, he raises some interesting points that tradition has determined otherwise. The first is the man that was at the tomb when the women arrived that Sunday morning. Tradition says that the man was an angel, however Morison believes that this man was the writer of the gospel, Mark. Secondly tradition has it that the guards at the tomb were Roman soldiers, however Morison, from the text, demonstrates that they could not have been Roman soldiers, but rather the Temple Guards (no Roman soldier would ever have admitted to falling asleep on his post, that was punishable by death). However, there are other events that seem to slip his mind, such as Peter and John (as outlined in the Gospel of John) being told by the women that the tomb was empty, and then going to the tomb themselves to see that what the woman had said was true.
The main point that Morison seems to focus on, though, is the unprecedented rise of Christianity over the first fifty years of its life. He indicates that a group of scared fisherman become powerful speakers of an unbelievable message, and further people heard and flocked to the message. This, he suggests, could not have happened if Christ had not risen from the dead (and that the body was produced). In the end, though, his main question (which is not answered in the book) is, who moved the stone? ( )

Frank Morison in "Who Moved the Stone?" does a great job of providing a detailed historical review of the various theories of what happened to Jesus' body after His death. He covers the Jewish and Roman legal procedures and delves into the implications of what the gospel reports of His trial and death infer. He also examines Pontius Pilate in detail, his history and psychology. Although I didn't agree with all of his conclusions, he is a persuasive and a careful historian. ( )

Verily verily, the Christian Bible is very clear on the foundational importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Regardless of personal interpretation, Scriptures such as Romans 10:9 and 1 Corinthians 15:14 clearly state that for the believer, Jesus' resurrection from the dead must be regarded as a non-optional issue, and must be personally subscribed to doctrinally. Obviously, this can be an affront to the modern intellect and have the potential to collide with our reasoning faculties and idea of intelligence. In fact, that was exactly the case for English journalist Frank Morison when he began to write "Who Moved The Stone" over 70 years ago. As a skeptic, he set out to prove that the story of Christ's resurrection was only a fabricated myth... what he found, however, was a seamless validity in the biblical and extra-historical record.

This is one of those books that a lot of people use anecdotally, but few people have read and those who say they have, I wonder if they truly have. It is written by someone (Frank Morison is a pen name) who set out to prove that the resurrection of Jesus couldn't have happened, but in the process became convinced that it did. This book is his journey of coming to that conclusion. This is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the topic if only because it is such a well known book. Though his conclusion is historic and orthodox, his route to getting there is not entirely so. ( )